A Business Report on Company Q Ltd - Case Study Example

 1 A Business Report on Company Q Ltd Company Q Ltd is an international logistic company located in London City. The company’s main operations are purchasing, packaging and delivery of heavy metal machineries to the Middle East. And most of the Company Q’s customers are based in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. As a result of these activities, company Q requires some transformations in the way it handles orders, customer relationship, logistic issues and legal affairs. Hence, the management of Company Q is contemplating to implement the use of latest Information system/Technology in order to improve its quality of services. In preparation for this, Company Q has taken a dramatic step to transform its operations by dividing all its basic activities into four distinct departments: sales and marketing; human resource management; logistic operations; customer service. At the moment, the company is interested in developing its customer service and the entire management in order to make company Q competitive. Some of the purposes for Company Q to adopt modern Information system/Technology include but not limited to: Creating an avenue for all employees to have smooth and uninterrupted communication with one another, and with their seniors and customers. Perfectly establish the processes required for cost-efficiency and optimal performance in all departments of the company. 2 Regulate the flow of vital information from one department to another. Therefore, the management of Company Q would have to make the important decision to acquire two unique information systems/technologies: ERP and CRM. These two Information systems have some advantages when compared with the other Information technologies in the market. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning: this is a computer-based system that will help Company Q process all its vital pieces of information, whether financial or otherwise; and to centrally make the data available for all departments to access. ERP could successfully process information about the company’s tangible assets, raw materials, human resource, transactions, sales and marketing, finances etc. Enterprise Resource Planning is so important in the sense that it would reduce the time usually required to transmit information from one department to the other. It is affordable, and it is just a system architecture that utilizes some software that could be localized. At Company Q, ERP has been able to: (i) increase the efficiency of the company; (ii) reduce the overheard cost of operation; (iii) add appreciable quality to the services of the company (Chorafas, 2001). Similarly, CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management, is an important Information System that has been implemented by Company Q to handle all issues related to its customer services and sales expectations. Customer Relationship 3 Management makes use of some software that could be localised to serve only the purposes for which Company Q needed it for. Some organisations rely on the information gathered through CRM system to fully comprehend the nature of their customers, that is, their real lifestyles: what kind of services do they want? And how they expect them to be taken care of? Interestingly, well-managed Customer Resource Management could also be used for the forecast of future sales, depending on the nature of the currently existing customers in Company Q’s data. Many organisations are unable to obtain all the significant pieces of information about their customers in order to set up some strategies to win the hearts of new customers in the same demographics (Chorafas, 2001). However, with the use of Customer Relationship Management system, it is quite possible to have all these vital data stored in a safe manner: and sales managers as well as any other senior official could have access to the data about the customers. However, Company Q needs to review its investment procedures for acquiring new technologies/systems. At the moment, the processes are cumbersome and time wasting. Company Q requires that prior to the purchase of software or any technological products, the following procedures must be strictly followed without any disruption: ( i) Feasibility study: Doing this would help the officials in procurement section understand the significance of such technologies. But discouragingly, this step could 4 take months or even years before the findings from the study are submitted for vetting and approval. (ii) Evaluation: this requires that the system/technology is checked to determine its value. This procedure also takes weeks to complete. (iii) Purchasing and implementation: This is when the information system has been purchased and implemented. (iv) Post-implementation: This stage occurs when the systems are being checked for their quality of performance. It is unfortunate that it takes almost half a year from the time of expressing an interest about an Information System to the period of its implementation. This idea of wasting time is due to many bureaucratic bottlenecks that come between the management members who often have opposing views about issues. Therefore, thinking about the time-sensitiveness of Company Q’s business operations, it is advisable that all the investment procedures be sped up in order not to lose money to laziness. In conclusion, implementing a combined form of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) would go a long way in helping 5 Company Q in dealing with all its diverse business interests. Not only that, it would also increase the efficiency of the company’s employees. As a matter of fact, this would make most operations at Company Q cost-effective. When customers are satisfied with the company’s services and the manner of attending to their needs, it is likely that they would continue to patronise Company Q. It is also important that the management should be swift in making time-sensitive decisions about acquiring new systems or technologies. There should be a framework that would allow them to quickly appraise the quality of an investment so that they could make their decisions wisely and swiftly. If all the above-mentioned pieces of advice are into consideration, it is likely that the performance of the company would improve as necessary systems and technologies are acquired as quickly as they are needed. Part Two: Critical Review on Articles The following are the learning review as shown in the articles read on the management of Information System /Technology. (i) Varied formality: It is revealed that progress has been made in the area of using Information System/Technology in Australian corporations, as benefits of IS/IT could be detected in these organizations. However, each organization has is unique formality in the process of utilizing IS/IT—in other words, there is no 6 conformity among all the organizations, even though similar benefits manifest themselves in the organizations (Lin & Pervan, 2003). (ii) Improved Efficiency in Accountancy: E. L. F. Consultancy proves beyond unreasonable doubt that Information System/Technology could be used to achieve high quality in the services of accounting, taxation, auditing, management consultancy and information management. This demonstrates that IS/IT does not only contribute to the efficiency in production and administration, but it could also extend to the accounting section of any organization. This is an encouraging development in the application of IS/IT. (iii) Problem of Appraising Technological Projects: Accounting Rate of Return (ARR) has been used before as the system for appraising the efficiency of a capital project, most especially, the one that deals with technological project. However, due to some problems arising from its application, many organizations are disregarding its importance in knowing how much returns a capital, technological project would produce. ARR has been condemned for its misleading estimation of an organization’s financial worth. This often puts investors in the dark about how much an organization truly worth and how much returns they could make on their investment on such a capital project (Lefley & Sarkis, 1997). 7 (iv) Return on Investment in IT: Northrop (2003) explained the major problem now in IT management, which is the unexpected cost that crops up in the industry. Typically, IT managers are wary of how much returns would be accrued to their businesses when they invest on Information technology and its other requirements, like the purchase of more bandwidth, training of employees and so on. Hence, they seriously calculate the return on investment with the hope of determining the extent of their investment. But the major headache they have now is that some hidden costs cannot be calculated by return on investment; hence, they mistakenly spend more on their businesses and never break even or make enough profits. (v) Understanding IS/IT Management through its Taxonomies: Irani & Love (2001) explained the importance of instructing IT/IS managers the current taxonomies or jargons of the trade so that they could be well abreast of information and do their jobs perfectly as IT/IS managers. They believed that if new IT terms cannot find their ways to IT managers, they would definitely be lost, and this would bring some drawback to their efficiency as IT/IS managers. (vi) Faulty Evaluation of IT Investment: Anandarajan & Wen (1999) revealed that the use of Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) have been faulted as two methods of measuring the returns an IT investment could bring. These two evaluation methods do not show the hidden cost of managing an IT project, and they do not quantify the actual benefits in the investment. 8 (vii) Multi-dimensional Approach to IT Evaluation: Fitzgerald (1998) revealed that since some IT investment evaluation strategies have failed to show the real extent of returns of such investment, it is preferable to use multi-dimensional approach in measuring the efficiency of an IT/IS investment so that the mistakes due to the application of the known methods would be reduced or completely eliminated. (viii) Estimating the Success of an IT Project: Thorp (2007) explains that IT investors must not only be preoccupied with the traditional accounting that shows them only their amount of investment, but they also should concern themselves with the efficiency of the IT/IS projects to see if they would be profitable enough to give the expected Return on Investment. (ix) IT Project Risks: Elkington & Smallman (2000) reckoned that IT investors should not only concern themselves with the probable Return on Investment, but also the risks inherent in the IT investment. By doing this, they could prevent monumental losses that may threaten their project ROIs. (x) Successful Benchmarking: Doll et al. (2003) canvassed for the implementation of benchmarking on IT projects with hope of knowing when the risks are emerging and should be quickly arrested before they wipe out the projected ROIs. 9 (xi) IT Investment and Faith in the Process: Bannister & Remenyi (2000) believe that it requires more than interest in the success of IT investment but faith and practice in this kind of industry. What this means is that personal conviction that the IT investment would be successful is the bedrock of making it eventually. Reference Chorafas, Dimitris, N., 2001. Integrating ERP, CRM, supply chain management, and smart materials. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press. Read More